They Reward Consistency, Not Winning

There once was a day when winning the Indianapolis 500 or the Daytona 500 virtually assured the winner of a spot on the American Auto Racing Writers & Broadcaters Assn. All-American team.

Not anymore.

Season championships seem to have taken on more importance than winning the year’s premier races. The emphasis, as exemplified in the NASCAR points system, is to reward consistency more than winning.

Take the 2004 team, for instance. Neither Buddy Rice, the Indy winner, nor Dale Earnhardt Jr., the Daytona champion, was named to the AARWBA team.

Rice was beaten out by two open-wheel series champions, Sebastien Bourdais of Champ Cars and Tony Kanaan of the Indy Racing League. Even though Rice won three races, as many as Kanaan, winning the big one was not enough.

Earnhardt fared even poorer. He won six Nextel Cup races, including the big one, yet lost to Kurt Busch, the champion who won only three, and Jimmie Johnson, Cup runner-up and an eight-race winner. Earnhardt didn’t even make the second team, falling behind Jeff Gordon, five wins, and rookie Kasey Kahne, who did not have a single Nextel Cup victory.

The slight to Indy and Daytona winners has become contagious. Only once in the last eight years, Gil de Ferran in 2003, has the Indy winner made the All-American team, and not since Gordon in 1997 has the Daytona winner been selected.

It wasn’t like that a few decades ago. During the 1970s, only three Indy and two Daytona winners were left off the team.

Other 2004 selections: road racing -- Ron Fellows, Max Papis/Scott Pruett; drag racing -- John Force, Tony Schumacher; short track -- Steve Kinser, Bobby East; touring series -- Martin Truex Jr., Bobby Hamilton; at large -- Bill Auberlen, Thiago Medeiros.

Team members will be honored at the AARWBA awards banquet Jan. 15 in Pomona. The dinner will also kick off the organization’s 50th anniversary year, which will be highlighted by the naming of motor racing’s newsmaker of the half-century. A list of 12 nominees, chosen from an original list of 50, will be announced at the banquet. The winner will be revealed in May at Indianapolis.

Dinner details: (818) 842-7005.

McGrath Is Back

When Jeremy McGrath retired two years ago at 31, the seven-time supercross champion said he did not want to linger in the sport after his talents began to diminish, the way Willie Mays, John Unitas and Richard Petty ended their Hall of Fame careers.

So why is he ending his retirement and racing Saturday night in the THQ AMA supercross at Angel Stadium against Ricky Carmichael, Chad Reed, James (Bubba) Stewart and the cream of the world’s motorcycle riders?

“I don’t look at it as a comeback, not at all,” the Hall of Fame rider said from his home in Encinitas. “I’ve enjoyed being on the sidelines as a spectator these past two seasons and when my hip injuries healed, I got the urge to get back in the mix with these guys. I miss the action, no doubt about it. But I’m not prepared to make an all-out assault.”

McGrath plans to race a Honda in only seven of the 16 AMA supercross events, including the first two at Anaheim, Saturday and Jan. 22, at San Diego on Feb. 19, Phoenix, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Pontiac, Mich.

“I think it’s pretty cool,” he said. “I’ll play it by ear and see how it plays out. I don’t want to do anything that will jeopardize what I’ve accomplished in my career. If I came back and raced the full series, seriously, and finished fifth or seventh, even third, it might hurt the way people think of me. By racing only a few times, I can see how I match up with Ricky and Bubba and the guys and still not be taken too seriously.”

When he’s not racing, McGrath plans to attend most of the other events as a spectator -- and perhaps scout the opposition. One race he will not ride is the third one at Angel Stadium on Feb. 5.

“That’s another thing I like about my plan, I get some weekends off,” he said.

Then he issued a warning to his rivals.

“If I get up there in points, maybe win a race in the first couple of rounds, it’s hard to say what I might do.”

Last Laps

Mexican driver Michel Jourdain will switch from Champ Cars to NASCAR’s Busch series this season.

He will drive a Ford Taurus for PPC Racing, becoming the first Latino to race a full NASCAR schedule. Brazilian Christian Fittipaldi replaced John Andretti in one of the Petty team’s Winston Cup cars at midseason in 2003.

In 152 Champ Car starts, Jourdain had two victories, 25 top-10 finishes and nine podium finishes. His best season finish was third in 2003, when he raced for Team Rahal.

Jourdain is the second Mexican driver to leave Champ Car in less than a year. Adrian Fernandez left for the IRL shortly after the 2004 season started.

The 11th California Roadster Assn. reunion will be held Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Knott’s Radisson (formerly Buena Park) Hotel. Honored guest will be Gene Ellis, a charter CRA member and owner-driver in the 1940s of a flathead Ford V-8.... After a holiday layoff, the Irwindale Dragstrip is back on its Thursday schedule. Street-legal cars and motorcycles are eligible to post their times on the eighth-mile track.

Passings

Milt Minter, 71, died Dec. 23 of cancer at his home in Sanger, Calif. Minter raced 917 Porsches in the Can-Am series for Vasek Polak and also competed in Trans-Am, SCCA and vintage car races. A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at 14835 E. Olive St., in Sanger.

Carl Dane, 84, a pioneer car owner and crew chief in the early days of West Coast stock car racing, died Dec. 25 in Newport Beach. Dane was one of three brothers inducted into the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame in 2002.

*

Supercross Facts

* What: First of 16-race THQ AMA Supercross Series for 250cc and 125cc motorcycles.

* Where: Man-made course, Angel Stadium.

* When: Saturday, 7:30 p.m.

* 2004 winner: Chad Reed, Australia, Yamaha.

* Tickets: Sold out. Tickets available for Jan. 22 and Feb. 5 at Angel Stadium.